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Looking for an automated function with Ruler

Community Beginner ,
May 11, 2020 May 11, 2020

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Hello, I'm not sure if what I'm looking for exists, but I'll explain it anyways.

 

At my workplace, we are doing a project that involves taking paper surveys we have, scanning them, and using Photoshop, we use the Ruler function to measure how answers that used a Visual Analog Scale (think a bar from 0-100, participants mark an X on the line somewhere they think is appropriate for their survey answer). The Ruler function is great because we get consistent measurements for every survey, but it takes a lot of time because each survey has about 10 Scales on 1 sheet and we have over 200 surveys.

 

I was wondering if there's anyway to make this process faster, somehow automate it. Maybe this doesn't exist, but I figured I would ask anyways, thanks for the input.

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Community Expert ,
May 11, 2020 May 11, 2020

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You might be able to do something with actions. It sounds like you need human eyes looking at the surveys.


Melissa Piccone | Adobe Trainer | Pluralsight Author | Fine Artist

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Community Beginner ,
May 12, 2020 May 12, 2020

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Ah I see, what would Actions enable?

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Community Expert ,
May 12, 2020 May 12, 2020

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I don't know exaclty how you could use them but every little bit helps. I can tell you some of the ways I use them and maybe you can extrapoloate. I use actions to create a new document and add guides or just add guides. While that might not seem like much, making guides is tedius and takes me a minute or so and an action is instant. Maybe you create an action that will open and close the images for you? Created guides, turn on rulers? I don't know... you'll have to see what part of your work flow can be automated. 


Melissa Piccone | Adobe Trainer | Pluralsight Author | Fine Artist

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Community Expert ,
May 12, 2020 May 12, 2020

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Please post a few loosely cropped example images, Photoshop is mostly about images, so although text descriptions are somewhat helpful it is all about image processing.

 

Have you looked for specialist software solutions in this field?

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Community Beginner ,
May 12, 2020 May 12, 2020

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image.png

Here's an example of the survey sheets. We currently use ruler to measure where the X is along the scale. We do these one by one with Ruler, was just wondering if there's a way to do them all at once? I have no looked around for specialist software, went here first.

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Community Expert ,
May 12, 2020 May 12, 2020

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Ideally, you would have dedicated software and use an appropriate chart designed to work the software to provide automation. Perhaps something like automated tests where you have to make a solid fill-in of one circle with a pen in a row of many outlined circles, then the machine vision software can find the appropriate scale/answer.

 

This is not my area, so I'm not sure how much help I can offer.

 

It appears that there can only be one active measurement at a time. This is then captured and saved to a log file. The log file can then exported to text file. You can make an action to help speed up some common tasks around the process, such as open the measurement log panel, recording the current (manual) measurement, selecting all measurements and exporting:

 

measure-atn.png

 

https://helpx.adobe.com/au/photoshop/using/measurement.html

 

Scripting may be able to offer more options.

 

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Community Expert ,
May 13, 2020 May 13, 2020

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The measurement (ruler) tool has to be drawn one at a time, then recorded so that it is logged in the measurement panel, then the measurement tool has to be used for the next entry etc., until all measurements are logged and ready to be selected and exported. So in your example image, the measurement tool would need to be drawn and recorded 4 separate times, which is why I made an action to help in this process...

 

Alternatively, you can make a marquee selection, then hold down the shift key to add to the selection, then release the shift key and finish drawing the selection. Repeat as many times as required. You will then have multiple selections which can all be saved to the measurement panel in a single step.

 

A total will be created, plus the 4 separate entries.

 

If you look at the image attached, you can see that I have compared the measurement tool (494 px) to the selection (497 px) for the fourth final visual analog scale. There are only 3 pixels difference from when I measured using the tool vs. the marquee selection, so both methods are equivalent to each other if the user measures exactly the same points.

 

log.png

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Community Beginner ,
May 13, 2020 May 13, 2020

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Just wanted to let you know that I showed your suggestion to my team and they said it has greatly improved their efficiency! Thanks so much for the help.

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